SANTA BARBARA, CA-Toyota's Perceived Quality Score rose 4% over the last six months and Lexus once again captured the luxury category's highest Perceived Quality rating in 2011, according to the Spring 2011 Perceived Quality Study (PQS) from ALG, a subsidiary of DealerTrack Holdings Inc. The study also shows that Land Rover (up 2.5%) and Kia(up 5.6%) experienced the biggest gains in perception among luxury and mainstream brands respectively.

For its PQS, ALG surveys approximately 3,000 to 4,000 U.S. consumers twice a year to gauge perceptions of a number of luxury and mainstream automotive brands.

Honda (81.2; -0.2%) once again led the mainstream brands and Toyota (73.5; +4.0%) rebounded from a firestorm of negative publicity early last year to finish the year strong. Ford Trucks (71.2; +1.9%), Subaru (70.6; +2.5%) and Nissan (69.8; +1.2%) finished third, fourth and fifth, respectively, in the mainstream category.

Did you enjoy this article? Click here to subscribe to Quality Magazine.

Events

In many cases, “compliance” is doing what’s required of us. Most companies know this, but in order to move to Operational Excellence (OpEx) we need to tap into the culture of continuous improvement, and achieve what is “desired” versus just what is “required.”